General Meeting, 13 January 2004

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"Out of the Picture: New Opportunities and Challenges Facing Technical Communication"

As a trained technical writer and now a visual interaction designer, Patrick Hofmann has turned into a man of few words.

We see visual cues and read visual instructions everywhere: from user manuals to web browsers, from road signs to hand dryers in public washrooms. Visual instructions have been around for a long time.

However, the evolution of the digital information age has given birth to a revolution in visual communication. As more and more people encounter new digital products and communicate with new countries and new cultures, language transforms into something more global and far more visually dependent.

Given this evolution, there are both new challenges and new opportunities facing visual language and instruction. As technical communicators, how do we visualize for different cultures, languages and ages? How do we visualize for new technologies? Let's address these questions and generate many more - all in an attempt to evaluate pictures as a new global language.

More about Patrick Hofmann

At Quarry Integrated Communications in Waterloo, Patrick helps many clients to create usable information products for globalization and translation. Often he designs their online, hardcopy, and interface information without words. His award-winning work and undying passion for visual language have sent him far and wide, as he teaches workshops on using pictures to improve communications.